LISTEN TO THE DRUGS EXPERTS

With barely a moment's pause, the debate about drugs has moved on from
cannabis to ecstasy. The Association of Chief Police Officers, a body not
noted for its liberal-mindedness, has called for ecstasy to lose its class
A drug status and for the establishment of legal heroin injecting-rooms. It
argues that ecstasy is less dangerous than other class A drugs, such as
heroin and cocaine, and that injecting-rooms for heroin addicts would at
least ensure that users received clean needles and informed health advice.

The Independent on Sunday was campaigning for the decriminalisation of
cannabis long before it became acceptable for David Blunkett to contemplate
such a move. The case for a further relaxation of the laws is a powerful
one, and to some extent logical. But the Association of Chief Police
Officers is right to make its approval for such a move conditional on
supporting evidence from the medical and scientific communities. So far the
evidence is fairly thin.

We also called for a royal commission to look into the cannabis question,
and there are grounds now for the establishment of such a body to consider
the laws relating to harder drugs. But royal commissions can be slow and
cumbersome, and the all-party committee of MPs now inquiring into drugs
laws is a credible alternative that is likely to lead to more effective
recommendations.

Open debate is vital, and those specialists with strong views should not be
admonished for expressing them. Last week one of London's most senior
police officers was rebuked by the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
for telling the committee that he was not interested in taking action
against weekend "recreational users" of small amounts of cocaine and
ecstasy. He argued that it was a waste of valuable police time, and that
such drug-taking had no effect on the rest of the community or the user who
returned to work on Monday morning. We don't accept the assumption behind
that remark. For those who have no job to go to, drug-taking can take on a
very different meaning.

But there are many complex and sensitive issues relating to the legalising
of so-called harder drugs, and those with experience on the ground ­ police
officers and medical experts ­ must be allowed to contribute to the debate.